Judges 7 and 8. July 1, 2007. Jackie Bolen

So we continue on this week with the story of Gideon. Last week, I talked about how God is gracious, not giving up on us, despite our weaknesses and problems. If there were tryouts for God’s team, I’m not sure any of us would make it, including most of the people in the book of Judges and even the entire Bible. Gideon was a guy with a lot of problems, the biggest being his lack of faith. And yet despite this, God worked through him to achieve an amazing victory, as we’ll read about this week. But while most people, including the New Testament writer of the book of Hebrews remembers only his faith, his biggest problem is lack of faith. The story goes on to show Gideon leading Israel into idol worship because he wanted the comforts of victory without any of the responsibility of it.

I remember back when I was 19 or 20 years old and I started to follow Jesus and how simple it seemed. I would pray sometimes, go to Church occasionally, read the Bible once in a while, tell others the little that I knew about who God was and try to love people. It was when I started going to Church that things started to seem a lot more complicated. There were all these spoken and unspoken rules about drinking, smoking, dancing, Bible reading and prayer, having to be nice to everybody, what you talk about in coffee time, needing to always smile and pretend you’re happy. It kind of made me feel stressed out because being nice to everybody and always pretending I’m happy isn’t really my style. I didn’t really fit with all these people who’d lived their entire lives in the Church and talked Christian-y talk, using these big words and clichés that I didn’t understand. Born again, by grace through faith, sanctification, popcorn prayer, inviting God into my heart. I just didn’t get it. I read the Bible and don’t really think Jesus was an especially nice person who would be content with drinking coffee and talking about the weather. But in the last couple years, I’ve started to see that my life is ultimately about following Jesus, in obedience and faith and that following some moral code is not really so important. Following all these rules and appearing outwardly religious but inwardly having a heart that is far from God is a scary thing to me. To follow some moral code and ignore the bigger things like justice, obedience, mercy, grace, forgiveness and following Jesus seems a lot like the Pharisees that Jesus had very few good things to say about. In the end, it was these kind of people who were so focused on external rules and being religious that killed Jesus.

Throughout the book of Judges and throughout the entire Bible it seems to me, God is looking for people who will trust and obey Him in faith. We’re often seduced by spiritual gifts, thinking that these are really what matter. But they are useless without obedience because this is where the real power is. We’re seduced by thinking that we can contain God within a small little box and that we can coerce Him into blessing us. We want this control and these blessings but want none of the responsibility that comes with following Jesus. If you look at Gideon’s life, he was a mighty warrior, gifted by God with amazing leadership ability. He leads Israel to an astounding victory and yet because of his lack of faith, sets up an idol to worship and is only interested in personal comfort. He leads Israel to an even worse situation then at the beginning of his ruling over them. I’ll read Judges 7.

Chapter 6 ends with the famous story of Gideon testing God two times with the fleece. Chapter 7 starts with a reversal of this as God tests Gideon to see if he will trust Him to go into battle with the Midianites. In perhaps one of Gideon’s better moments, he seems pretty willing to go along with God’s plan as the numbers of his army are reduced and reduced even more to an amount so small that any victory they obtain will surely be because of God. Perhaps this is why the New Testament remembers Gideon’s faith.

Verses 13-15 in Chapter 7 ironically tell about how Gideon overhears an enemy’s dream predicting Israel’s victory and how, at this point he finally believes. Somewhat unbelievably, an Angel of the Lord, fire from a rock and the test with the fleece wasn’t quite enough proof for Gideon to take God at his word. And yet, God is patient, working with Gideon until he finally has faith. It’s at this point of faith that God leads Israel into battle.

So with 300 men, some smashed clay pots, good timing, fire and yelling, Israel, led by Gideon defeats the evil Midianites. Israel never has to draw their swords because the Midianites end up killing each other. There is some uncertainty as to what actually happened but it’s suggested that all the noise scared the camels and led to mass chaos inside camp, leading the Midianites to kill each other and flee. Without a doubt, this was God’s victory and not something that Gideon could really take any credit for. Upon first appearance, this stunning victory seems like it would be the center of the Gideon cycle within the book of Judges. And yet with a closer look at the structure, the center of the story is actually Gideon’s unbelief. Because of this, the story of Gideon begins and ends with Israel worshipping idols and not God.

The story continues on in Chapter 8 with some other battles and internal fighting within Israel which I don’t have time to talk about. I’ll move on to Chapter 8, verses 22-27 and read this short section.

In verse 22, Israel asks Gideon to rule over them. Gideon is a mighty warrior, filled with the Spirit of God who has just led them to an amazing victory over their enemies. It’s obvious why the Israelites are willing to follow him. At first glance, Gideon’s refusal to lead them may appear to be out of humility. And yet, by looking more closely, it is obvious that this isn’t the case. In verse 22, when the people of Israel credit Gideon with the miraculous victory, he does nothing to correct them when obviously it was God’s victory. When the people ask him to rule over them, he refuses but asks for some share of the plunder, which is the wealth taken from the Midianites. He wants none of the responsibility of leadership but all the benefits of it. The story continues with Gideon taking the plunder and forming it into an idol so that Israel could worship it. This brings to mind the incident with the Golden Calf that Aaron made while Moses was up on the mountain talking to God. As if taking the plunder from a victory that was obviously God’s and forming it into an idol wasn’t bad enough, the place Gideon chose to set up the idol is quite revealing as well. God had chosen Shiloh as the place of worship but Gideon sets up the idol in his hometown, bringing glory to himself. Later on, in verses 30 and 31 we see Gideon now has a harem, with many wives. Later on, after Gideon’s death one of his sons, Abimelek kills 70 of his other brothers in order that he might rule over Israel.

In way of summarizing this story, one of my professors Bruce Waltke perhaps says it best. “God’s rule cannot possibly mean to set up a Canaanite oracle, retire with affluence and acclaim to your hometown, gather a harem around you and refuse the people’s requests to lead them.”

This story seems shocking to me. So let's pretend that I was Gideon's friend and he was talking to me about this sudden hit of wealth that he obtained through this miraculous victory. He's telling me about how he plans to make this good luck idol for his family and hopefully his entire country to bow down and worship. I think I would say to him, "Gideon, what the heck are you thinking? Why are you such a dumb-ass? It seems obvious to me that you should maybe be worshipping the God who gave you this wealth in a miraculous way instead of this stupid idol. This idol is useless." But it seems that Gideon didn't have a friend like me or maybe he did but had too many dollar signs blurring his vision to see them. And yet the scary thing about these words I would say to Gideon is that they are probably words I could say to myself at times in my life. A bit too close for comfort maybe.

Gideon wanted the comforts of victory without any of the responsibility of it. The worst part about it is that Gideon couldn’t really take any of the credit for the victory. By believing in and following Jesus, we are changed and yet also like Gideon we can take no credit for the new life we have in Jesus. And yet I wonder how the Gospel that I often hear is so often about the blessings of God. Follow this set of moral rules and you’ll find salvation and God will obviously have to bless you is what I hear. The bigger things like justice, mercy, grace and forgiveness get ignored. Maybe life is easier that way, when you subscribe to a set of rules that you can mindlessly follow. Do we want the comforts of following Jesus without any of the responsibility? Do we want health, wealth and happiness, like Gideon but have hearts that are far from God. When it starts to become about religion and not about relationship with Jesus, I think this is a scary place to be . You will either end up feeling guilty because you can't measure up or you will be filled with pride, thinking that you're better than a sinner like me. But the truth is that we're all sinners, it's just that some of us are okay with that because we know that Jesus loves us anyway. The words of Jesus that I read in the Bible talk a lot about taking up your cross and following Him, being united with Christ in His death, giving up all to follow Jesus, that the rich cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. God is not a vending machine. It's not all about God making us comfortable and wealthy. God, in the Old Testament was looking for people who would simply worship and follow Him, in obedience. Jesus, today is looking for people who will simply worship and follow Him, in obedience. I wonder how obedience somehow got mixed up with only obeying for the sake of coercing God into blessing us. What made Gideon think that he could enjoy the comforts of victory but not lead his people? I wonder how following Jesus somehow got mixed up into following some se tof rules that say I shouldn’t drink or smoke or dance. Following Jesus requires commitment and sacrifice and a life of surrender to the one who created you and forgives you and loves you.

And so wherever you are in your journey closer towards Jesus, there’s hope for you. Maybe you are a lot closer to the Gideon who believed that God would win an amazing victory with only 300 men and some clay pots. If this is where you’re at, I feel joyful and think that maybe you could help me a lot! But maybe you’re more like the Gideon who continually refused to have faith in God’s Word, which eventually led to his downfall. Jesus is pretty good at working with people of little faith and doing some miraculous things in them so don’t give up. Maybe you’re a lot like the Gideon who wants only the comforts and blessings of God without any of the responsibility. Following Jesus is a much more beautiful thing than slavishly following some sort of Christian code in order to coerce Him into blessing you. It’s about Jesus loving you enough that he would die a painful, humiliating death in order that you might be free and you loving Him in return. But if this is not where you’re at, don’t despair. Dying with Christ to the things of this world and being raised with Him is a pretty gradual process I think. Wherever you are, Jesus is always calling you to come home to Him, to walk in obedience and humility, living a life filled with grace, mercy, justice and forgiveness. God loves you and wants you to follow Him, in humility. He wants to know you and you to know Him as more than the God who dispenses blessings based on our actions. There's more to following Jesus then following rules, it's about love. Let go of the religion that is focused on external appearances and not so much on an inward attitude of surrender to Jesus. The health, wealth and happiness Gospel is usually at odds with the Kingdom of God. Gideon's story is enough of a warning for me.